It was certainly an odd sight, to see two teens and a grown woman walking up a paved road-like path in the dead night a small distance away from a flaming forest. It was even MORE odder that they were being followed after by two individuals in strangely gaudy sets of armour that looked to be a mixture of both old and modern walking side by side as if that simple gesture was of immense significance.
The crickets had long gone silent, either burnt to death, crushed under the massive feet of a raging Berserker. The lucky few that survived were those that had retreated when the chaos wrought by the humans had begun.
Aston had forgone wearing his helmet, intent on enjoying the gentle breeze against his skin and walked with a barely noticeable excitement in his steps, masked by the clanging of his metal sabatons. The Knight of Atrocity accompanied his King with a gentle smile on his face, "Quite the wondrous night is it not, My Ki-"
"A..Artoria." His King cut him off at the end, looking down at the road with a small embarrassed blush on her face, "Artoria.. will do. You no longer wish to be below me, is that not so?" It was a small gesture but it was a start, a step she'd worked up the courage to take.
"Then.." Aston inhaled deeply, "Artoria, I would still answer to you as a knight." That was a pact of honour, to be obeyed as a knight, though he supposed it wouldn't.. couldn't stay that way for too long.
Ignoring Artoria's small embarrassed smile, he looked up in thought for a moment before searching for something in his armour. Finding said something, the Lancer took it out, revealing it to be a small prettily adorned bag that immediately made Artoria raise her head and sniff the air, as if alarmed.
No sooner than he'd opened his mouth was the bag already gone, "I tried making something this age calls coo-" When he noticed what had occurred, Aston only smiled, "Oh."
Artoria carefully reached inside, pulling out a small biscuit that she eyed for a few seconds as the odd strand of hair sticking out her head swayed as if excited. When she bit into it, her green eyes shone for a second before the King of Legend chose to ignore everything in her immediate vicinity.
"I must say, this is a sight to die for." Aston nodded with crossed arms, proud of himself for honing his craft throughout his life but then closed his eyes and put a hand to his chin, "My treasured temporary ally, I do believe that you couldn't possible be so terrible with those female that you have to resort to spying on us. If that is the case, I do truly pity you."
Archer appeared by his side, a small annoyed smirk on his face, "Bazett is right, you do have a thing for being politely aggressive and no, I'm not, spying, on you." He was simply gauging what was so different about him and the grey haired knight that accomplished what he could not.
Aston narrowed his eyes and gestured to their surroundings, "The circumstances beg to differ." His tone was as gentle and polite as ever.
"No, no they do not. I was simply keeping an eye out." Archer defended himself disinterestedly, his gaze more fixed on the auburn haired boy being chewed out by his Master who also seemed to be briefing him on the situation, intent on not discussing the appearance of Berserker and his master with the, to be truthful, strangers.
"An eye out for how to not be an awkward and nervous wreck?" Aston questioned, choosing to relish the situation that had presented itself.
Archer stared at him estranged, "I reaffirm, I am not awkward OR nervous. Do I even remotely look as such?" He gestured to himself with both hands, going so far as to tilt his head to convey his confusion about the situation. What part of him gave that feeling?
"I don't quite have any sort of confirmation, do you wish to bet?" Aston looked right back at him, exuding confidence that Archer felt shouldn't have been there.
Archer just shook his head in denial, not even slightly interested in the, bet, as the Lancer put it.
That was until,
"I didn't realise you were so in touch with your feminine side, my apologies."
In plain words, he got called a pussy.
"Alright." Archer sighed, how bad could it be? "You know what? I'm in, what's the bet?"
"My temporary ally, we are in the middle of a war. Do you truly believe we have the time for bets?" Aston smiled gently, peering off to the side and whistling.
"But you were the one wh-"
"What? My K- Artoria, did you hear anything?"
"..Hm?"
"....." Left speechless, Archer dissipated back to his spiritual form, no longer even slightly interested in entertaining the Lancer and his way with words.
"That aside.." Aston closed his eyes in thought, thinking back to his younger days, "Have we perchance, met before?"
Archer, being an Archer, noticed the sudden shift in Aston's tone of speech. That and the knight seemed to be clenching his fist, "I don't think so, no."
"Truly? I could've sworn.." He shrugged, letting the matter go before picking it right back up, "Are you certain you don't remember trying to murder a red haired man in his early twenties?" The way of fighting, the manner of speech, and the calculative gaze, Aston felt it quite familiar.
Archer was grateful to himself for changing to a spiritual form; otherwise, the grey haired Lancer would have surely noted his eyes widening ever so slightly, "....No."
How could he have not noticed?
No, the lightning had been of a different colour, the hair was red and the height was far smaller, "Damn my luck." It just had to be a man he'd previously tried to murder, tasked by the collective subconscious of humanity to purge an unnecessary deviation from the original course of history.
"Sir Aston, I notice your speed is far greater than during your lifetime." Artoria spoke up, glancing his way with a biscuit held close to her lips. It was significant speed, perhaps surpassing sound itself BUT not as much as what he'd shown now. Wasn't the seeing darkness supposed to be a sort of metaphor for great agility?
"Ahaha..." Aston laughed awkwardly before pursing his lips, "It must be born of my legend."
He cut a deal and gave it up.
So long as his timeline wasn't pruned, he wouldn't start going all over the place and putting things where they weren't supposed to be, ruining history completely in the process.
Essentially, it was threatening to kill a LOT more to stop less death. THAT and giving up most of his speed as affirmation of the contract.
Aston didn't regret his choice one bit, if he didn't take the deal, his entire world would be destroyed only to get rid of him.
Archer thought about the matter in complete silence, following behind the two servants with a slight stutter in his movement.
THIS was the Lancer's actual speed and as a servant from the throne of heroes isolated from space time, there were virtually infinite versions of him all across the infinite timelines MEANING threatening him meant threatening someone who could possibly surpass the speed of light and crash into the planet.
Being of a more modern origin, he knew full well that for a body to move at light speed would make it's mass infinite thereby making the energy it needs to move infinite as well. If it WAS moving at that speed then scientifically, it DID have infinite energy.
News alert, that was MORE than enough to break through the laws that bound their world and scorch the planet.
In that one moment, the honourable knight that had given his life for the people appeared more like a threat to their continued existence to the Archer servant.
Meanwhile, Aston wondered what had made the Archer go completely silent all of a sudden. He narrowed his eyes in thought, he did feel familiar even if the man denied it but, as the situation would have it he didn't get the time to ponder as Bazett kicked the metal gates to the Church compound, blowing them into the air, all mangled and twisted.
They flew under the night sky before crashing into the walls of the majestically built Church, bringing them down in an explosion of dust and concrete.
"A..All that money came from the Tohsaka treasury." Rin stuttered, slack jawed at the perhaps the millions the foreign magus had thrown to the wind in a fraction of a second. Of course she, being a genius and all, noted that Bazett might outclass her as a magus, "It's all on Kirei." It was the priest's fault.
Shirou Emiya only watched with curious eyes, slightly awed by the prowess a well-established magus could possess, "..Couldn't you be a little less... destructive?" He was cut off when Artoria appeared in front of him and swung the invisible Excalibur, slicing in half the short sword aimed right at the teen's face.
"So, I researched." Aston spoke as he walked, his helmet appearing over his face, "It appears the populace shares a general belief that priests do have children in their basements."
"It appears even heroes of legend aren't exempt from petty emotions like spite."
"I do swear I came for the children." Aston's smile faded away, such a horrible and cruel thing couldn't be allowed to continue, not if he knew about it.
Archer retreated to the rooftop, keeping an eye on their surroundings, if they attacked Kirei, a certain King in Gold would surely take interest in the situation.
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How would YOU go about romancing Caenis?
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All filled now. (<- What was hindering my updates till now)